Forecast

Danbury police ‘blotter’ now available to public

Dirk Perrefort| on
July 10, 2018

DANBURY — An activity log now available at the police department gives a glimpse into the hundreds of calls that police respond to on a daily basis.

The log, which was made available this week after requests by The News-Times, shows that police responded to nearly 200 calls on Sunday from motor vehicle violations to reports of gunshots being fired in the city’s downtown.

While many departments routinely offer the public both an arrest log and an activity log, which shows what calls police responded to, the Danbury Police Department hasn’t made an activity log available for nearly eight years.

But when approached by the apparent lack of transparency last week, Mayor Mark Boughton and police officials were quick to put a log — once known as the “police blotter” — back in place.

“We are more than happy to make it available if it contributes to ensuring that the public is aware of what’s going on in the city,” Chief Patrick Ridenhour said Tuesday.

He said that for now, an employee is pulling the information to create the report, but added that they hope to have the process automated in the near future. Logs will be available Monday through Friday until the system is automated, but weekend calls will be included on the Monday report.

The logs are located at the front desk and are available for public view. The first log made available Monday showed nearly 200 calls on Sunday alone.

Police officers in the city responded to more than a dozen reports of burglar alarms that were unfounded and a similar number of unfounded reports of suspicious people or vehicles.

There were also two unfounded calls for gunshots, with one coming in around 2 a.m. on Comstock Avenue near the city’s ice arena, while another resident reported hearing gunshots around 3 a.m. on School Ridge Road. And keep in mind that people are still shooting off fireworks left over from July 4th.

Officers also responded to a car that was reported stolen from a doctor’s office on Hospital Avenue around 8:30 a.m. Sunday and a disturbance at the Danbury Fair mall that resulted in a 75-year-old city woman arrested on breach of peace charges.

The issue of having an activity log came to a head last week when a City Council member questioned why there was an increase in thefts during May.

Ridenhour responded that there was a rash of car thefts, particularly around fitness clubs, that had previously been unreported. Ridenhour said they had already arrested an individual they believed was responsible for many of the break-ins.

Detective Mark Williams said Tuesday that Duane Snow, 61, was arrested June 5 in connection to the thefts. He is facing several charges including third-degree burglary and third-degree criminal mischief.

Williams said there are additional arrest warrants pending for Snow, a resident of Waterbury, and that he is suspected in other car thefts reported out of Waterbury, Watertown and Bethel as well as thefts reported by the State Police.

Dan Barrett, the legal director for the state’s American Civil Liberties Union chapter, said recently that activity logs are common at police departments throughout the state and serve a variety of functions.

“It lets the community know what the civil servants are doing on any given day,” he said. “It’s helpful for residents to know whats going on that doesn’t lead to an arrest.”

Snow was released from custody on a $5,000 bond and is expected to appear again in court on Aug. 23.